Tag: Trump immigration policy

Despite Warnings, Trump Moves to Expand Migrant Family Detention

New York Times logoTiny prison uniforms were replaced with T-shirts. Health care and schooling improved. Experts say there is still no safe way to incarcerate families

DILLEY, TEXAS — On a burning hot day last summer at the South Texas Family Residential Center, a federal detention facility for immigrant families, Kenia and her son, Michael, 11, were hunched over a foosball table in an air-conditioned recreation room when Michael dropped to the floor and started sobbing. He curled his body into a ball and writhed as if he were in pain.

The other parents and children in the room looked up from their jump ropes and boomboxes as Kenia knelt down and pleaded into Michael’s ear: Would he please go back to their room before the guards noticed him?

“I don’t want to be here, I don’t want to be here,” Michael shouted, his eyes clenched.

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House Chairman Says Administration Misled Congress On Migrant Boy’s Death

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee accused the Trump administration of misleading Congress and the public about the death of a 16-year-old boy in Border Patrol custody, and he urged a swift completion of an internal investigation.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said a report by ProPublica on the May 20 death of Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez “calls into serious question the steps U.S. Customs and Border Protection claims to have taken to care for a child in its custody.”

“Not only did CBP hold Carlos longer than the legal limit and apparently fail to care for him while he was sick, the agency seems to have been untruthful with Congress and the public about the circumstances around his tragic death. This is inexcusable,” Thompson said in a statement Thursday evening.

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Migrant Teen Who Died in U.S. Custody Was Unresponsive for Hours, Report Says

HOUSTON, TEXAS — A flu-ridden 16-year-old from Guatemala writhed in agony inside a U.S. Border Patrol cell and collapsed on the floor where he lay for several hours before he was found dead, according to video released Thursday that further calls into question the Trump administration’s treatment of immigrant families.

The footage published by ProPublica shows the last hours of Carlos Hernandez Vasquez, who was found dead May 20. He is one of at least six children to have died since December 2018 after being detained by border agents.

According to ProPublica, Hernandez staggered to the toilet in his cell in the middle of the night at the Border Patrol station in Weslaco, Texas, and collapsed nearby. He remained still for more than four hours until his cellmate awakened at 6:05 a.m. and discovered him on the floor.

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Martin O’Malley talks confronting Trump official on immigration: Silence is ‘irresponsible’

AlterNet logoMartin O’Malley — the former Maryland governor and presidential candidate who on Wednesday had a heated exchange about immigration with President Donald Trump’s acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, Ken Cuccinelli — spoke to Salon on Sunday about his advice for Americans who want to stand up to Trump officials on immigration issues.

“I think silence in the face of the cruelty of caging children on our southern border is irresponsible,” O’Malley said. “We cannot be silent in the face of this. The biggest threat to our American freedom is not dictatorship. It’s our own public passivity and acceptance of cruelty and institutional violence practiced in our name and with our permission. We all have an obligation to speak out, to call it like it is.”

The confrontation between O’Malley and Cuccinelli occurred on Wednesday night at a Washington pub called the Dubliner during an unofficial meetup for alumni of Gonzaga College High School. The former Baltimore mayor criticized the Trump administration’s policies of separating migrant children from their parents and of detaining immigrants in chain-link enclosures, later telling The Washington Post in a text message that Cuccinelli is “the son of immigrant grandparents who cages children for a fascist president.” His actions were praised by progressives like New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg, who on Thursday tweeted “God bless Martin O’Malley.”

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US Border Officials Pressured Asylum Officers To Deny Entry To Immigrants Seeking Protection, A Report Finds

A DHS report obtained by BuzzFeed News found the controversial Trump program to keep asylum-seekers in Mexico has caused significant issues at the border.

A team of senior Department of Homeland Security officials who examined a controversial Trump administration program to keep asylum-seekers in Mexico found that US border officials apparently pressured asylum officers to deny immigrants entry into the US, according to a draft government report obtained by BuzzFeed News recommending significant and wide-ranging improvements to the program.

The report’s existence comes after months of consistent claims from immigrant advocates of irregularities and problems with the Trump administration’s Migration Protection Protocols program, which was implemented earlier this year and has forced more than 50,000 people to remain in Mexico as their cases move through US immigration courts. Continue reading “US Border Officials Pressured Asylum Officers To Deny Entry To Immigrants Seeking Protection, A Report Finds”

President Trump’s misleading spin on the border crisis

Washington Post logoBorder facilities “are much better than they were under President Obama by far. … But, I am very concerned. It’s in much better shape than it ever was. A lot of these young children come from places that you don’t even want to know about. The way they’ve lived, the way they’ve been, the poverty that they’ve grown up in.”

— President Trump, in remarks at the White House, June 25

In 2014, President Barack Obama faced criticism for the way he handled an influx of unaccompanied minors crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. U.S. Border Patrol holding facilities became dangerously overcrowded. That led to concerning conditions for children waiting to be transferred to longer-term shelters run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement requires a basic standard of care for children in federal immigration custody, including “safe and sanitary” conditions and a 72-hour limit on stays in Border Patrol holding facilities.

Children were spending longer than 72 hours in facilities, due to the backup in the system, and the American Civil Liberties Union ultimately filed a lawsuit in 2015, alleging Border Patrol facilities held migrants in “inhumane and punitive conditions,” violating U.S. law.

View the complete November 13 article by Elyse Samuels on The Washington Post website here.

A Trump administration strategy led to the child migrant backup crisis at the border

View the complete November 12 article by Neena Satija, Karoun Demirjian, Abigail Hauslohner and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

Divided Supreme Court leans toward allowing Trump to end DACA

The Hill logoThe Supreme Court on Tuesday was sharply divided over President Trump‘s move to end Obama-era protections for immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally as children, as the justices heard oral arguments in one of the most closely watched cases of the term.

Members of the court’s conservative wing appeared wary of allowing the court to review the administration’s decision to begin phasing out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which grants deferral from deportation to nearly 700,000 young adult immigrants without legal status.

And questions from conservative justices during oral arguments suggested they appeared to think the administration had supplied legally sound reasons for eliminating DACA.

View the complete November 12 article by John Kruzel on The Hill website here.

Trump DACA fight hits Supreme Court

The Hill logoThe Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear oral arguments over President Trump‘s move to end Obama-era protections for undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, in one of the most closely watched cases of its term.

The controversy over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is at the center of a two-year, contentious political fight between Democrats and Trump over immigration. And it presents high stakes for both parties and the court as the justices again review a controversial Trump policy.

A ruling could change the deportation status of nearly 700,000 people and is expected to come next summer, just months before the 2020 election.

View the complete November 11 article by John Kruzel and Rafael Bernal on The Hill website here.

Trump admin pushes new fees for asylum seekers, citizen applicants

Axios logoThe Trump administration proposed increasing fees on Friday for those seeking asylum in the U.S., as well as for some Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) applicants.

What’s happening: If enacted, the proposal would increase the cost to apply for U.S. citizenship. As part of a crackdown on low-income immigrants, the Trump administration has also proposed penalizing those who use or are likely to use public benefits like food stamps or housing assistance.

By the numbers:

  • DACA recipients would pay an additional $275 every two years to renew their legal permits under the new DHS proposal, in addition to the $495 required for filing.
  • Asylum seekers would pay a $50 application fee for the first time under the proposal, the Wall Street Journal reports — making the U.S. “one of the few countries in the world to attach a fee to humanitarian protections.”
  • Those applying to become U.S. citizens would pay $1,170 to apply, instead of $640, per the proposal — an 83% price increase.
  • Asylum applicants “with incomes under the federal poverty line” would pay a higher citizenship fee under the new proposal, per the WSJ.

View the complete November 9 article by Orion Rummler on the Axois website here.